


A sanctuary of eternal love

by LadyNobody



Series: AfuHiruMonth2019 [3]
Category: Eyeshield 21, Inazuma Eleven
Genre: AfuHiruMonth2019, Alternate Universe - Magic, Character Death, Fae & Fairies, Fae!Afuro Terumi, Human!Hiruma Youichi, I'm Sorry, M/M, Sad Ending, Secret Crush, afuhiru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-18 20:17:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20318893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyNobody/pseuds/LadyNobody
Summary: "Beware of the enchanted forest, younglings, for there is no coming back once a fae lays its eyes on you"That was what every teacher, adult or grown up would say again and again to scare kids away from the city's walls.And it was what Hiruma Yoichi had grown up to as well.Little did everyone know, that the blue eyed child had a different destiny wrote in the stars.





	A sanctuary of eternal love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zalk909192](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zalk909192/gifts).

> AFUHIRU MONTH DAY THREE: In the language of flowers  
prompt list by @inazumafocus on tumblr and twitter

Once upon a time, just outside the city's walls, was a forest.  
Local people used to tell stories about the creatures living inside, dangerous and alluring, deadly and beautiful.  
Creatures no one could resist.  
Then there was a man in the local market, smiling at everyone who passed by his shop and offering free sample of his sweets.  
You were not to eat them if you wanted to live, or so they whispered to young children in the streets.  
The man was a fae, one of the creature of the forest, who gained human form in order to steal kids away and eat them for dinner, but no one could chase him away.  
Every once in a while somebody tried, but the man just smiled and all the will of that person would vanish, making them feel weak and accept the fae's sweets.  
Those were never seen again.

"Beware of the enchanted forest, younglings, for there is no coming back once a fae lays its eyes on you"

That was what every teacher, adult or grown up would say again and again to scare kids away from the city's walls.  
And it was what Hiruma Yoichi had grown up to as well.  
Little did everyone know, that the blue eyed child had a different destiny wrote in the stars.

He must've been around the age of ten when he first ventured in the market on his own, the voice of the orphanage caregiver now lost somewhere far behind him.  
It was already closing hour, the sun was setting, painting everything with its warm orange light before disappearing completely behind the walls and all the shops were now closed,  
letting him run around freely with no adult to stop him by his slender arm.  
He loved it.  
Everything was quiet and mysterious, casting shadows on the walls that looked like strange creatures to his curious eyes.  
He chased down a beautiful red cat down some alleys, lifting up puffs of dust with his consumed leather shoes and finding himself on the main street.  
The cat was gone, the road deserted.  
He was about to turn around and find the screaming caregiver, since the light was almost out, when a rich chocolate smell tickled his nostrils.  
Hiruma followed the smell, mouth already watering and tummy aching in anticipation and when he looked up there was an abandoned cake on a bare table on the side of the road.  
There was no one in sight.  
Strange.  
A part of brain tried to remind him that it was unadvised to eat things we don't know the origin of, it was like taking candy from a stranger. Also, who was the idiot who left freshly baked cakes around?  
...  
But no one ever let him had chocolate back at the orphanage, and surely just a quick bite wouldn't hurt him, right?  
His tummy agreed.  
But by the time he got his first small bite, the taste of it made his eyes shine and hunger grew stronger, he couldn't help but eat it all.  
He looked around, scared someone might have seen him eating a whole cake by himself in a matter of seconds and as he brushed some crumbles away from his cheeks, he could've sworn there was a  
shadow smiling just outside his field of view.  
Very strange.  
That night his stomatch did not ache, so he simply forgot about the suspiscious looking cake and began to live his life as if faint voices didn't suddenly bagan to speak wherever he went.  
It was probably just his imagination.

At the age of fourteen the townspeople sent him away.  
Bringer of misfortune, that's how they had called him for the past four years, because everywhere he went, soemthing bad happened.  
May it be a vase shattering right after he touched it, kids falling and breaking their legs if they bumped into him or just about anything even remotely bad, everythig had been tied down to him.  
They had nothing against him to burn him down for witchcraft, but when he tried desperately to tell them it was the small voice's fault and not his, everyone knew there was the faeries curse at work.  
He was marked and could no longer stay there.  
So they abandoned him, closing the door shut to never open it again.  
There was nothing but forest in front of him and not even a path to follow and maybe reach another city.  
He had no other choice but to venture inside, eyes shifting and adjusting to the dark as the sun was setting low and the trees let no light filter between their ancient branches.  
The voices were still there, higher, closer than ever before and for the first time he was scared.  
They were laughing, snickering when he flinched for a broken twig or a rustling of leaves.  
As time went by, he grew scared and lonlier, walking in the dark with no idea of where he was going as he kept moving forward, testing the ground for solid footing.  
He surely didn't want to fall into a bottomless pit and he really hoped there weren't snakes out there...  
By the time his legs had started to feel numb his heart had sank into despair, he was ready to fall to his knees and ask the faeries to just eat him up quickly, for he was tired of the  
voices all around him and in the back of his head speaking without him being able to understand.  
It was in that moment, when he had leaned on a trunk, that the melody started.  
Soothing,   
Alluring,  
It made his heart flutter.  
He had to follow it.  
The voices sounded angry, they tried to talk louder but Hiruma's ears were only for that gentle chant.  
He didn't even know how lucky he was, for the trunk were he intended to rest upon was home to a poisonus spider...  
Only when dawn came, the voice stopped and he woke up from the enchantment that gave him enough strength to walk all night long.  
Suddenly, he dropped to his knees, weak and tired, body shaking with fatigue and shadows of fears clutched on his heart.  
With heavy eyelids he looked around, wondering where the sweet voice went and why did it left him alone again.  
There were flowers all over him, he could barely see their shapes but they looked like small cushions and he so desperately needed a bed.

"Sleep, lost child, and have plenty of rest. For no harm will reach you here"

And so he did, heartened by that voice speaking to him in a tender whisper against his ear.  
He fell face on the ground with a faint smile, hidden by the white field of carrot's flowers.

A melody woke him up and for a second he thought he was still sleeping.  
Right there, standing on top of his nose, was a very tiny person, but instead of jumping up with fear and disbelief, his heart felt safer than ever.  
He blinked twice, making sure he wasn't actually hallucinating because of some poison hidden in the flower buds.

"You finally decided to woke up, child, I was starting to worry"

Definitely not an hallucination.  
Hiruma cleared his throat, trying to look at the tiny creature without hurting his eyes too much in the process.

"Uhm, not to be rude but, are you a fae?"

The thing crooked its head, letting tiny long blonde hair fall over as he looked at him with a small smile.

"Do I look like a troll?"

"NO! No that was... that was not what I meant but- then why did you... help me" he paused, looking around at the flower field from below "it was you, wasn't it?"

A small chuckle like tiny cheerful bells filled the fresh morning air and he blushed as the fae rose up with its thin wings

"Not all fae are ill willed, I'm a Queen Anne's Lace solitary fae, or a carrot one for short, and wherever there's a carrot flower there's a sanctuary for the needy. You looked like you  
needed a helping hand, was I wrong?"

It was now far too close to his face and Hiruma could clearly see its shiny red eyes and its curved up lips.  
He smiled as well, a bit awkwardly as he sat up legs crossed, cleaning himself from the dirt.

"I was, well, I still am I think? I have nowhere to go and... I have been hearing voices for the past four years, but now they only grow stronger in the forest"

The fae smile wavered as it kept flying in front of him

"You ate some of our food outside our kingdom and the others got interested in you, now you can hear them more as you stepped into it like they wanted you to-"

Silence fell upon them as Hiruma remembered of that strange chocolate cake.  
He felt like an idiot.  
So that was it?  
He was going to be taunt by faeries wherever he went?  
He would've been marked as a bringer of misfortune for the rest of his life?

"You could stay here, if you wanted"

He looked up, eyes wide with disbelief.  
No words left his slighly parted lips.  
What?

"I'm offering you a safe place to live, you big doofus. I can bring you the human food you need and you can tell me stories about the outside world. Deal?"

There was no hesitation in Hiruma's eyes, for some strnge reason he firmely believed whatthe fae was saying was true and the feeling of safety he had before falling asleep still lingered  
in his heart, reassuring it with a tender caress.  
He held his index finger, a bright smile on his lips

"Deal!"

  
\---------------------------------------------------------

  
Two year had passed and Hiruma never once had missed his old home among other humans.  
Everything was mesmerising in the enchanted forest and with the small fae as his guide and protector, he really had nothing to fear.  
The magic creature had taught him everthing about the flowers, the medical herbs and how to treat wounds. He had learnt more about the world when casted aside than when he was actually living in it  
and the stories, oh the stories were his favourite part of it all.  
Trolls, giants, witches, shapeshifter, they were all real not only a cautionary tale to set children straight!  
The only thing it was never revealed to him was the fae's name, but he didn't pry.  
It was a bit disappointing to not be able to call it by that though...

One day as he sat in the sanctuary field tending a hurt rabbit, the fae approached him looking gloom.  
His heart flinched at that, it was something new and he definitely didn't like it.  
It stopped its sad flying only to sit on his shoulder like it was now used to do.  
Hiruma was uncomfortable for the first time in two ears, and he had seen the fae gut a squirrel for him, just saying.

"What's wrong pixie?"

It didn't react to the dumb nickname telling him to stop calling it by that as would usually happen.  
There must've been something really big bothering it and in his heart he began to feel restless to know, so that he could put an end to whatever it was and get it to smile again.  
The fae sighed, kicking air with its tiny feet while looking at the ground to hide his pained expression.

"You have to go"

"Wha-"

"You can't keep living here in this small field, you're a human, you need to live a human life"

Hiruma frowned.  
Where did that came from?  
Him? A human life? He didn't even want one at that point!

"Humans casted me aside as if I was a plague, you were the one who saved and took me in, why should I go back to that?!"

He saw it biting its lip, struggling with words as a fae never did.

"Well, you could go to another city, start a new life, get an occupation. Now you know how to use herbs to cure and treat wounds-"

"They'd think I'm a witch and you know it. What's up with all this urge for me to leave? Did I do anything to make you hate me?"

The tiny creature flinched and looked up with teary red eyes and Hiruma's heart cracked a bit.

"I do not hate you, you stupid kid, but how selfish would I be to keep you here forever with me?"

He was taken aback

"Selfish? What exactly would make you selfish if I stay here with you forever?"

The fae sighed again, looking up at the clear blue sky

"You're hundreds years too young to understand it, kid"

Something moved inside him, making him gently take it in his hands to better fix his burning blue gaze on its wet cheeks.

"Then let's live hundreds of years together so I'll understand and be able to never make you cry again!"

He tought he did good, that his words were right, but he only managed to make it cry even harder while it shook its head with a small smile.  
It spread its arms, beckoning him to hug his face like he rarely ever did.  
Hiruma's heart fluttered as the fae hid against his cheekbone.

"Ok then"

A soft whisper against his ear that made his heart ease like that night of two years ago.  
He could stay, he wasn't going to be alone ever again.

  
\-----------------------------------------------

He didn't live hundreds years to finally understand what had bothered so much his little fae.  
A disease no magical herbs nor heartfelt tears could heal made him lay on that field for three days and three night, unable to move anything if not his eyes.  
But before he withered away, the creature finally stopped crying and got closer to his ear to reveal him its last secret.  
Its name was Terumi and by knowing a fae's name one had complete power over it, so if he wanted, Hiruma could make it say what had bothered it for so many years.  
Yet the human smiled and closed his eyes, slowly parting his dry lips.

"I don't need to, if I can ask you anything now that I know your name, I ask you to find me again in another life, Terumi. Find me and tell me your secret yourself, this is my final wish and  
request for you."

Once upon a time just outside the city's walls, was a forest.  
Now there are buildings as high as trees and the townspeople know nothing about faeries and magic.  
But there's a park and in that park a larg white spot.  
A field of Queen Anne's Lace, a sanctuary for the weary.  
And in the middle of the field, a small spot of red Globe Amaranth.  
It is said that a heartbroken maiden died there, for those red flowers were the symbol of an "unfading eternal love" and anyone who passed by could still hear a sorrowful melody whispering  
at their hearts.  
No one could know that was the mourning voice of a fae waiting patiently to fade from existence.  
Waiting for its time to come and for the breeze to bring it to where its forbidden love now was.

After all, Terumi had something really important to say to him...


End file.
